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We build a political economy model where individuals differ in the extent of the behavioral bias they exhibit when voting first over social long-term care (LTC) insurance and then choosing the amount of LTC annuities. LTC annuities provide a larger return if dependent than if healthy. We study the majority voting equilibrium under three types of behavioral biases: myopia, optimism and sophisticated procrastination. Optimists and myopics similarly under-estimate their own dependency risk both when voting and when buying LTC annuities. They differ in that optimists know the correct average dependency risk (that determines the return of both social and private insurance), while myopics also under-estimate this average risk (and thus over-estimate the insurance return). Sophisticated procrastinators act as if they under-estimated their own risk when buying annuities, but anticipate this bias at the time of voting. We obtain that the stylized observation of lack of LTC insurance is compatible with agents being optimistic or myopic, but not sophisticated procrastinators. Increasing the difference in return across dependency states for the LTC annuity is detrimental to sophisticated voters and to very biased myopic and optimist voters. Finally, less myopic individuals may end up worse off, at the majority-voting equilibrium, than more myopic agents, casting some doubt on the usefulness of information campaigns.

About 15% of Norwegian voters report a different party than their actual choice when asked about voting at previous Storting elections. Even though this percentage is lower than in other countries, it nonetheless shows that recall‐data do not give a correct picture of people's voting behavior. The political stability among voters is exaggerated. This will have consequences for the monthly political barometers on account of the weighing procedures used. This article discusses different explanations for erroneous recall; incorrect remembering on the one hand and a wish for consistent behavior on the other. The consistency model appears to be most relevant. In this connection the distinction between stable and unstable voters is important.

Does growing up without both parents decrease voter turnout? I extend and improve upon earlier answers to this question. First, I estimate the long-term effects on voter turnout via analysis of a nationally representative sample of adults. Second, I exploit the quasi-natural experiment of parental death to correct for non-random selection into parental absence. Contrary to previous research, I find no evidence that growing up in an absent-parent household effects white voter turnout. I also present evidence suggesting the negative effects are limited to black voters. Adapted from the source document.

Since the 1960s, voting behaviour in advanced democratic states has undergone substantial changes. From this period, the transformation of social structures, increased education, and the expansion of new technologies in the field of mass media, among other things, are evident. The transformation factors that affect the voter and his choice are sooner or later reflected in new theoretical concepts describing electoral behaviour, whether it was the theory of party identification, voter choice based on issues or rational choice. So far, however, none of the theories have adequately reflected the effect of consumer-style thinking on electoral behaviour. A new trend in political marketing – political branding – aims to correct precisely this deficiency. Due to the fact that the relevant research in the field of political branding and its impact on the voting behaviour of individuals is still in its infancy, we are faced with a lack of robust theoretical foundations. The text thus aims to clarify this situation by gathering and analysing existing branding concepts, pointing to their strengths and weaknesses. Also, it contributes to the theoretical discussion by linking research on political branding to existing theories of voting behaviour, asking whether the related branding concepts are able to explain the voting behaviour of voters as well as whether they are open to further amendments and modifications. ; Since the 1960s, voting behaviour in advanced democratic states has undergone substantial changes. From this period, the transformation of social structures, increased education, and the expansion of new technologies in the field of mass media, among other things, are evident. The transformation factors that affect the voter and his choice are sooner or later reflected in new theoretical concepts describing electoral behaviour, whether it was the theory of party identification, voter choice based on issues or rational choice. So far, however, none of the theories have adequately reflected the effect of ...

El artículo examina la validez de las certezas existentes sobre los procesos de implantación de soluciones de voto electrónico. Para ello, primero discute cuál debe ser la correcta aproximación al uso de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) en el contexto político-electoral; luego realiza un somero repaso de los malentendidos más habituales sobre el voto electrónico. El cuerpo central del artículo revisa y discute aquellas certezas que, en estudios anteriores y a tenor de los desarrollos recientes, se han puesto de manifiesto en torno a la utilización de soluciones de voto electrónico. ; This article discusses the validity of existing certainties of the implementation of processes of electronic voting solutions. First, it discusses what should be the correct approach to the use of ICTs in the political-electoral context, later it makes a brief review of the most common misunderstandings about electronic voting. The main body of this article reviews and discusses those certainties that in previous studies and recent developments have been revealed around the use of electronic voting solutions.

Philip E. Converse has proposed that party identification is intensified through a process of reinforcement, ie, repeated voting in accord with that identification; it follows that party identification increases in intensity as individuals age. Others have proposed that voters' partisan strength is a function of the character of the political environment in their youth, ie, that a highly charged political environment leads to intensified partisanship. These two hypotheses imply the same cross-sectional patterns in current survey data. Cohort analyses falter on the identification problem. Therefore, other implications must be examined. Most females born before 1899 have had fewer opportunities to reinforce a party tie through voting experience than males of similar age. Thus if Converse is correct, the partisan strength of males born before 1899 should exceed that of females of the same age. However, since these males & females shared the same political environment, if Converse's critics are correct, their partisan intensity should be equal. On the bases of survey data from the 1952-1964 period, these implications were tested; only marginal differences were found between males & females born before 1899. These results are supportive of a generational explanation of partisan strength. 2 Tables, Modified AA.

What does representation mean when applied to international organizations? While many scholars working on normative questions related to global governance often make use of the concept of representation, few have addressed specifics of applying the concept to the rules and practices by which IOs operate. This article examines representation as a fundamental, albeit often neglected, norm of governance which, if perceived to be deficient or unfair, can interfere with other components of governance, as well as with performance of an organization's core tasks by undermining legitimacy. We argue that the concept of representation has been neglected in the ongoing debates about good governance and democratic deficits within IOs. We aim to correct this by drawing on insights from normative political theory considerations of representation. The article then applies theoretical aspects of representation to the governance of the International Monetary Fund. We determine that subjecting IOs to this kind of conceptual scrutiny highlights important deficiencies in representational practices in global politics. Finally, our conclusion argues scholars of global governance need to address the normative and empirical implications of conceptualizing representation at the supranational level.

Examines poll reporting on the television evening news during the US presidential election, focusing on the reporting of sampling error and the correct use of this information to interpret and present poll results.

This paper provides a public choice analysis of the 2008 banking bailout in the United States. The paper introduces heterogeneity of congressional districts into the common agency problem in special interest politics. District heterogeneity implies district-specific electoral constraints on legislators' ability to collect rents from, and cast dissonant votes in support of, special interests. An empirical analysis examines legislative voting on the initial bailout proposal, using campaign contributions to legislators from special interest groups and the importance of financial services for employment within congressional districts as the main explanatory variables. The empirical analysis corrects for possible endogeneity bias, using valid instruments, and considers several intuitive sub-sample estimations as alternative methods for addressing the endogeneity issue. The paper provides empirical evidence that campaign contributions from the financial services sector influenced legislative voting on the banking bailout. Adapted from the source document.

The correct aggregation of stakeholders' preferences is a vital aspect of solving problems associated with natural resources. In fact, there is no one solution that permits the incorporation of those preferences into techniques that, in turn, address multiple objectives in the management of those resources. In this context, this work aims to assign, analyse, and compare the weights of importance to groups of stakeholders (representativity) starting from different approaches and methodologies: pairwise comparison matrices (using a subjective approach) and the voting power notion (when an objective approach is deployed). For the latter, a variant of the extended goal programming model is employed. The results show different weight values and, therefore, scenarios, in which the social groups defined acquire diverse importance. It is also observed that there are scenarios determined by different values of the control parameter, in which the results of the two above-mentioned approaches are similar. Finally, it is demonstrated how the affiliation of stakeholders to other social groups (different identities) affects the results obtained.

Much of the science of public opinion focuses on individuals, asking if they perceive or misperceive and why. Often this science will emphasize misperceptions and the psychological processes that produce them. But political debates have outcomes in the aggregate. This Element turns to a more systematic approach, emphasizing whole electorates and examining facts through a dynamic lens. It argues public opinion will converge toward truth over time and frequently finds correct views of facts grow stronger under information flow, while misperception recedes.

Differences between epistemic & procedural approaches toward democracy are studied to determine whether proceduralist notions of democracy pose epistemic difficulties for existing social decision rules. An overview of the different forms of epistemic & procedural perspectives toward democracy is presented. After reviewing the Marquis de Condorcet's (1785) understanding of the jury system, the question of whether certain social decision rules are better at tracking truths than others is examined. Several hypothetical cases of plurality voting that involve different numbers of voting options are subsequently analyzed. The analysis revealed that all systems of social decision rules were epistemically sound; moreover, all systems were identified as possessing epistemic value, especially when voters demonstrated reliability in selecting the correct outcome & when the electorate itself is large. It is concluded that both epistemic & procedural forms of democracy possess epistemic merit. 4 Tables, 3 Appendixes, 59 References. J. W. Parker

This article builds a nonparametric method for inference from roll-call cohesion scores. Cohesion scores have been a staple of legislative studies since the publication of Rice's 1924 thesis. Unfortunately, little effort has been dedicated to understanding their statistical properties or relating them to existing models of legislative behavior. I show how a common use of cohesion scores, testing for distinct voting blocs, is severely biased toward Type I error, practically guaranteeing significant findings even when the null hypothesis is correct. I offer a nonparametric method—permutation analysis—that solves the bias problem and provides for simple and intuitive inference. I demonstrate with an examination of roll-call voting data from the Brazilian National Congress.

Research on public opinion has found that respondents to survey questions lack true attitudes towards different economic and moral issues. Given the latter, these respondents do not use their stance towards these issues to decide for which party or candidate to vote for. One of the main reasons for these dismal findings lies on the existence of measurement error. The paper presents a technique that corrects for measurement error and tests the importance of issues stances in the vote choice of the Mexican electorate during the 2006 Presidential Election. The paper also analyzes the significance of a "perceived issue space" and demonstrates that this concept is important to understand which particular issue stances matter and which ones do not in a voting decision. Adapted from the source document.